Abstract
Understanding the regional food security situation is of great importance to maintaining China’s food security. To provide targeted information to help regional policymakers monitor food security status, based on the differentiated foci during the phased development of food security, this paper was conceived from the perspective of the need for early warnings and proposes a framework for regional integrated food security that incorporates food quantity security, food quality security, and sustainable food security. In this framework, an indicator system is proposed, and the calculation of these indicators, as well as their warning thresholds and warning ranges, is discussed. To test this approach, a case study was conducted in one of China’s major grain-producing areas, the Dongting Lake area. The results showed that the overall integrated food security situation in this area was generally in the low-alarm range between 1986 and 2011; the primary causes of this status were food quality security, generally in the low- or medium-alarm range, and sustainable food security, which in 14 of the 26 years was in the low-alarm range. The government should establish a more robust system for monitoring the quality of agricultural products, controlling waste discharge, and guaranteeing poor individuals access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs. Policies on pesticide and fertilizer application should shift from actively encouraging more use to controlling excess application.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acheampong, E., R.W. Campbell, A.B.S. Diekmann, and M.A. St John. 2011. Food availability effects on reproductive strategy: The case of Acartia tonsa (Copepoda: Calanoida). Marine Ecology Progress Series 428: 151–159. doi:10.3354/meps09061.
Ashraf, S., M. Iftikhar, B. Shahbaz, G.A. Khan, and M. Luqman. 2013. Impacts of flood on livelihoods and food security of rural communities: A case study of southern Punjab, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences 50(4): 751–758.
Azar, C., J. Holmberg, and K. Lindgren. 1996. Socio-ecological indicators for sustainability. Ecological Economics 18(2): 89–112.
Bai, L., C. Ma, S. Gong, and Y. Yang. 2007. Food safety assurance systems in China. Food Control 18(5): 480–484.
Bai, Y., L. Zhou, and J. Wang. 2006. Organophosphorus pesticide residues in market foods in Shaanxi area, China. Food Chemistry 98(2): 240–242.
Barrett, C.B. 2010. Measuring food insecurity. Science 327(5967): 825–828.
Brickley, E.B. 2012. Evaluating the use of remote sensing data in the US Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 6(1): 063511.
Carney, M. 2012. Compounding crises of economic recession and food insecurity: A comparative study of three low-income communities in Santa Barbara County. Agriculture and Human Values 29(2): 185–201.
Carvalho, F.P. 2006. Agriculture, pesticides, food security, and food safety. Environmental Science and Policy 9(7–8): 685–692.
Chang, D. 1996. Applications of the extent analysis method on fuzzy AHP. European Journal of Operational Research 95(3): 649–655.
Chen, H., J. Wang, and J. Huang. 2014. Policy support, social capital, and farmers’ adaptation to drought in China. Global Environmental Change 24: 193–202.
CNS. 2008. Chinese food guide. Tibet: People’s Publishing House of Tibet. (in Chinese).
Desjardins, E., R. MacRae, and T. Schumilas. 2010. Linking future population food requirements for health with local production in Waterloo Region, Canada. Agriculture and Human Values 27(2): 129–140.
Ding, S. 2006. Discuss and representative definition about food security. World Agriculture 322(2): 4–6. (in Chinese).
Ding, S. 2008. Implementation “take grain as key integrated food security” new strategy. Grain Issues Research 3: 10–21. (in Chinese).
Eakin, H., and L.A. Bojórquez-Tapia. 2008. Insights into the composition of household vulnerability from multicriteria decision analysis. Global Environmental Change 18(1): 112–127.
Ensminger, M.E., and A.H. Ensminger. 1993. Foods and nutrition encyclopedia. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Ericksen, P.J. 2008. Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research. Global Environmental Change 18(1): 234–245.
FAO. 2000. Handbook for defining and setting up a food security information and early warning system (FSIEWS). http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/X8622E/x8622e01.htm. Accessed 23 May 2013.
FAO. 2003. Trade reforms and food security: Conceptualizing the linkages. Rome: FAO.
Felloni, F., J. Gilbert, T.I. Wahl, and P. Wandschneider. 2003. Trade policy, biotechnology, and grain self-sufficiency in China. Agricultural Economics 28(3): 173–186.
Feng, Z. 2007. Future food security and arable land guarantee for population development in China. Population Research 31(2): 15–29. (in Chinese).
Foley, J.A., N. Ramankutty, K.A. Brauman, E.S. Cassidy, J.S. Gerber, M. Johnston, N.D. Mueller, et al. 2011. Solutions for a cultivated planet. Nature 478(7369): 337–342.
Genesio, L., M. Bacci, C. Baron, B. Diarra, A. Di Vecchia, A. Alhassane, I. Hassane, et al. 2011. Early warning systems for food security in West Africa: Evolution, achievements, and challenges. Atmospheric Science Letters 12(1): 142–148.
Giombolini, K.J., K.J. Chambers, S.A. Schlegel, and J.B. Dunne. 2010. Testing the local reality: Does the Willamette Valley growing region produce enough to meet the needs of the local population? A comparison of agriculture production and recommended dietary requirements. Agriculture and Human Values 28(2): 247–262.
Godfray, H.C., J.R. Beddington, I.R. Crute, L. Haddad, D. Lawrence, J.F. Muir, J. Pretty, S. Robinson, S.M. Thomas, and C. Toulmin. 2010. Food security: The challenge of feeding none billion people. Science 327(5967): 812–818.
Gregory, P.J., J.S. Ingram, and M. Brklacich. 2005. Climate change and food security. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 360(1463): 2139–2148.
Groenewald, S.F., and E. Bulte. 2013. Trust and livelihood adaptation: Evidence from rural Mexico. Agriculture and Human Values 30(1): 41–55.
Gumus, A.T. 2009. Evaluation of hazardous waste transportation firms by using a two-step fuzzy-AHP and TOPSIS methodology. Expert Systems with Applications 36(2): 4067–4074.
Hahn, M.B., A.M. Riederer, and S.O. Foster. 2009. The Livelihood Vulnerability Index: A pragmatic approach to assessing risks from climate variability and change—A case study in Mozambique. Global Environmental Change 19(1): 74–88.
Husak, G.J., C.C. Funk, J. Michaelsen, T. Magadzire, and K.P. Goldsberry. 2013. Developing seasonal rainfall scenarios for food security early warning. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 114(1–2): 291–302.
Ilbery, B., and D. Maye. 2005. Food supply chains and sustainability: Evidence from specialist food producers in the Scottish/English borders. Land Use Policy 22(4): 331–344.
Ingram, J. 2011. A food systems approach to researching food security and its interactions with global environmental change. Food Security 3(4): 417–431.
Kai, T., and L. Qin. 2011. Analysis on consumption structure of Shanghai resident by using panel data model. In Software engineering and service science (ICSESS), ed. W. Li, 819–822. Beijing: IEEE.
Khan, S., Q. Cao, Y. Zheng, Y. Huang, and Y. Zhu. 2008. Health risks of heavy metals in contaminated soils and food crops irrigated with wastewater in Beijing, China. Environmental Pollution 152(3): 686–692.
Kiriti, T.W., and C. Tisdell. 2004. Commercial agriculture, marital status, and other influences on food availability: A Kenyan case study. Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment 2(3–4): 141–148.
Krishnamurthy, P.K., K. Lewis, and R.J. Choularton. 2014. A methodological framework for rapidly assessing the impacts of climate risk on national-level food security through a vulnerability index. Global Environmental Change 25: 121–132.
Li, J.P., and Z.P. Shangguan. 2012. Food availability and household food security: A case study in Shaanxi, China. Outlook on Agriculture 41(1): 57–63.
Li, R., D. Zhuang, H. Wang, and S. Wu. 2003. Spatial temporal changes of the land cover in the Dongting Lake area during the last 20 years. Progress in Geography 22(2): 164–169.
Li, Z. 2003. Theoretical analysis and comprehensive evaluation of food security index system. Beijing: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. (in Chinese).
Liu, Y., L. Liu, D. Xu, and S. Zhang. 2010. Risk assessment of flood and drought in major grain-producing areas based on information diffusion theory. Transactions of the CSAE 26(8): 1–7. (in Chinese).
Louden, F.N., and R.J. MacRae. 2010. Federal regulation of local and sustainable food claims in Canada: A case study of Local Food Plus. Agriculture and Human Values 27(2): 177–188.
Ma, S., and Q. Wang. 2010. Connotation, evaluation indices, methods, and safeguard measures for regional grain security. Resources Science 32(1): 35–41. (in Chinese).
Ma, Z., C. Shao, S. Ma, and Z. Ye. 2011. Constructing road safety performance indicators using Fuzzy Delphi Method and Grey Delphi Method. Expert Systems with Applications 38(3): 1509–1514.
MAC (Ministry of Agriculture of China). 2005. The limits of eight elements in cereals, legumes, straws, and plant products of China. Agricultural professional standard of China. Beijing: China Agriculture Press. (in Chinese).
NBSC. 2014. China statistical yearbook 1987–2013. Beijing: National Bureau of Statistics of China.
NDRC. 2008. National food security and long-term planning framework. http://www.china.com.cn/policy/txt/2008-11/13/content_16757540.htm. Accessed 04 May 2013. (in Chinese).
OECD. 1999. Agriculture in China and OECD countries. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Ortega, D.L., H.H. Wang, L. Wu, and N.J. Olynk. 2011. Modeling heterogeneity in consumer preferences for select food safety attributes in China. Food Policy 36(2): 318–324.
Qi, X., L. Liu, Y. Liu, and L. Yao. 2013. Risk assessment for sustainable food security in China according to integrated food security-taking Dongting Lake area for example. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 185(6): 4855–4867.
Qi, X., P.M. Vitousek, and L. Liu. 2014. Identification and evaluation of risk factors related to provincial food insecurity in China. Journal of Risk Research. doi:10.1080/13669877.2014.913667.
Qian, Y., M. Zheng, B. Zhang, L. Gao, and W. Liu. 2006. Determination and assessment of HCHs and DDTs residues in sediments from Lake Dongting, China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 116(1–3): 157–167.
Quave, C.L., and A. Pieroni. 2014. Fermented foods for food security and food sovereignty in the Balkans: A case study of the Gorani people of northeastern Albania. Journal of Ethnobiology 34(1): 28–43.
RITHP. 2013. Hunan rural statistical yearbook 1987–2012. Changsha: Hunan Statistics Press.
Rocha, C., and R.S. Liberato. 2013. Food sovereignty for cultural food security: The case of an indigenous community in Brazil. Food, Culture and Society 16(4): 589–602.
SBHP. 2013. Hunan statistical yearbook 1987–2012. Beijing: China Statistics Press.
Simelton, E. 2011. Food self-sufficiency and natural hazards in China. Food Security 3(1): 35–52.
Sullivan, C. 2002. Calculating a water poverty index. World Development 30(7): 1195–1210.
Suresh, B., and A. Ergeneman. 2005. A framework for evaluating food security and nutrition monitoring systems. African Journal of Food Agriculture and Nutritional Development 5(2): 1–26.
Tadesse, T., M. Haile, G. Senay, B.D. Wardlow, and C.L. Knutson. 2008. The need for integration of drought monitoring tools for proactive food security management in sub-Saharan Africa. Natural resources forum 32(4): 265–279.
Tirivarombo, S., and D.A. Hughes. 2011. Regional droughts and food security relationships in the Zambezi River Basin. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 36(14–15): 977–983.
Wang, L., Y. Liang, and X. Jiang. 2008. Analysis of eight organophosphorus pesticide residues in fresh vegetables retailed in agricultural product markets of Nanjing, China. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 81(4): 377–382.
WHO. 1990. Diet, nutrition, and the prevention of chronic diseases: Report of a WHO study group held in Geneva 6–13 March 1989. WHO Technical Report Series 797.
Xu, Z., J. Xu, X. Deng, J. Huang, E. Uchida, and S. Rozelle. 2006. Grain for green versus grain: Conflict between food security and conservation set-aside in China. World Development 34(1): 130–148.
Ye, L., and E. Van Ranst. 2009. Production scenarios and the effect of soil degradation on long-term food security in China. Global Environmental Change 19(4): 464–481.
Zhang, H. 2008. The analysis of the reasonable structure of water conservancy investment of capital construction in China by AHP method. Water Resources Management 23(1): 1–18.
Zhang, Y. 2006. Chinese health survey report. Jilin: Literature and History Press of Jilin. (in Chinese).
Zhao, C., J. Liu, R. Lu, and A. Zhang. 2006. Study on early warning system of food security in Xuzhou City. Hubei Agricultural Sciences 45(1): 4–7. (in Chinese).
Zhao, Y. 2007. Research on the early warning model of grain price and risk prevention mechanism. Economic Survey 1: 125–128. (in Chinese).
Zhong, L., L. Liu, X. Wang, and Y. Liu. 2010. Early warning index system of regional integrated food security and risk. Transactions of the CSAE 26(3): 374–379. (in Chinese).
Zhong, L., L. Liu, and J. Yang. 2012. Characterization of heavy metal pollution in the paddy soils of Xiangyin County, Dongting lake drainage basin, central south China. Environmental Earth Sciences 67(8): 2261–2268.
Zhou, D., H. Matsuda, Y. Hara, and K. Takeuchi. 2012. Potential and observed food flows in a Chinese city: A case study of Tianjin. Agriculture and Human Values 29(4): 481–492.
Zhu, Z. 1998. The problem of China’s food security: Demonstration and policy. Hubei: Hubei Science and Technology Publishing House. (in Chinese).
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 41130526).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Qi, X., Zhong, L. & Liu, L. A framework for a regional integrated food security early warning system: a case study of the Dongting Lake area in China. Agric Hum Values 32, 315–329 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-014-9560-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-014-9560-0